HMS Formidable (67)

Formidable underway, 3 August 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name	Formidable
Operator	Royal Navy
Builder	Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Yard number	1007
Laid down	17 June 1937
Launched	17 August 1939
Sponsored by	Lady Kingsley Wood
Commissioned	24 November 1940
Decommissioned	12 August 1947
Identification	Pennant number: 67[2]
Nickname(s)	The Ship That Launched Herself
Honours and awards	Matapan 1941 Crete 1941 North Africa 1942–43 Sicily 1943 Salerno 1943 Okinawa 1945 Japan 1945[1]
Fate	Sold for scrap, January 1953
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Illustrious-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	23,000 long tons (23,369 t) (standard)
Length	740 ft (225.6 m) (o/a) 710 ft (216.4 m) (waterline)
Beam	95 ft 9 in (29.2 m)
Draught	28 ft 10 in (8.8 m) (deep load)
Installed power	111,000 shp (83,000 kW) 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion	3 shafts; 3 geared steam turbines
Speed	30.5 knots (56.5 km/h; 35.1 mph)
Range	10,700 nmi (19,800 km; 12,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	1,299
Sensors and processing systems	1 × Type 79 early-warning radar
Armament	8 × twin QF 4.5-inch DP guns 6 × octuple QF 2-pdr AA guns
Armour	Waterline belt: 4.5 in (114 mm) Flight deck: 3 in (76 mm) Hangar sides and ends: 4.5 in (114 mm) Bulkheads: 2.5 in (64 mm)
Aircraft carried	36–54
Aviation facilities	1 catapult

HMS Formidable was an Illustrious-class aircraft carrier ordered for the Royal Navy before the Second World War. After being completed in late 1940, she was briefly assigned to the Home Fleet before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as a replacement for her crippled sister ship Illustrious. Formidable's aircraft played a key role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early 1941, and they subsequently provided cover for Allied ships and attacked Axis forces until their carrier was badly damaged by German dive bombers in May.

Assigned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean in early 1942, Formidable covered the invasion of Diego Suarez in Vichy Madagascar in mid-1942 against the possibility of a sortie by the Japanese into the Indian Ocean. Formidable returned home for a brief refit before participating in Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa in November. She remained in the Mediterranean and covered the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943 before beginning a lengthy refit.

Formidable made several attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway in mid-1944 as part of the Home Fleet. She was subsequently assigned to the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) in 1945 where she played a supporting role during the Battle of Okinawa and later attacked targets in the Japanese Home Islands. The ship was used to repatriate liberated Allied prisoners of war and soldiers after the Japanese surrender and then ferried British personnel across the globe through 1946. She was placed in reserve the following year and sold for scrap in 1953.